Waking Up Again
by PrincessTadashi
Summary: Tadashi wakes up six months after the fire in the hospital with little memory of what actually happened and seemingly perfectly fine. But when he discovers that he's undergone more changes than he realized, will he be able to learn to accept his new self so he can finally be reunited with his friends and family? (Rated T for slight fire-related violence.) Shipping: Tadashi/Honey
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! Well, as crazy as it sounds with the Spring semester just starting up again, I'm starting a new fanfic! Yay! (Am I insane? Maybe. But hey, sometimes a story just needs telling!) Basically this started as me trying to figure out a way for Tadashi to still be alive for a Disney Role Playing group I'm in. Sadly this initial concept got rejected, but I'd already started writing it out and, between me resolving to finally try to always finish a story once I've begun it and the fact that it wouldn't leave me alone, I'm going to plunge in head first and try to keep this one going along with my other ROTG fanfic (you can check my profile if you're a new reader and are interested in a feel-good family story surrounding Jack and the Bennetts!) I'll give you a heads up, this first chapter is going to be a little intense-not gory or anything, as I don't really hold with violence, but well, it was a necessary evil. If this freaks you out at all, please don't discount the story entirely, I promise that this is as bad as it gets and the rest of the story is much better (if a bit angsty-sorry!) **

**Anyway, s******orry, this is waaaay too much commentary for this short little chapter! And b**efore ya'll decide totally skip reading this story all together because I'm jabbering too much, I give you-"Waking Up Again"!**

0o0

Pain. Searing Pain. That's all Tadashi can feel as he feel as the flames engulf his body as he lies pinned underneath the large beam from the ceiling. He doesn't regret what he's done, but as he feels his clothes catching fire and his lungs collapse on themselves as smoke fills them, he can't help but think of the people he's leaving behind. Hiro-his adorable little brother. He'll never get to see what he goes on to do with that big brain of his, but he's sure that it will be amazing. Aunt Cass-the surrogate mother figure who'd taken care of them all those years. He wishes he could thank her for everything she'd done and tell her how much he loved her goofy stories and amazing cooking. Go Go—he'd never forget their awesome bike races around campus, and the late nigh talks in the lab they'd had about her home life and her dreams for a better future. Wasabi—secretly he'd loved his friends ocd-ness and forgiven him for every time he'd reorganized his office without asking, especially since he'd always left behind a fresh cup of cappuccino and a plate of scones for him whenever he was finished. Fred—well, he wasn't sure exactly what he'd miss most about the school mascot, but their epic video game marathons and the weekends they'd spent at conventions were probably on the top of the list. And Honey Lemon...

It's funny how his heart beats a little faster as he thinks about her, even as it's starting to fail on him. He can remember the first time he'd seen her at Freshman orientation. She'd stood out like a ray of sunshine among all of the other uncertain newbies and hovering parents. He'd almost immediately fallen in love with her radiant smile and old-school beauty. Even though he'd been surprised to find out that she was going for a Chemistry major (not his first guess with her girly-girl exterior), he'd been glad too since it meant that they'd be in a lot of the same classes. Their love and friendship had only grown over the semesters until it was impossible for people not to see the almost tangible connection between them. She'd been his best friend and most loyal companion, and every afternoon out and about in San Fransokyo and late night spent in the lab had been a bit of Heaven on Earth. All he wishes now is that he'd actually gotten up the courage to tell her how he'd felt and maybe even give her a kiss. Now he guesses he'll never know what it would feel like to have her soft raspberry flavored lips on his.

The inhalation of smoke is going to his head and he can't think anymore. Flashes of white and patches of black cloud his vision, making it impossible to see the building that's burning around him. Eventually he goes numb to the pain and then loses consciousness completely. The last words on his lips are, "Honey Lemon…"

0o0

Rescue workers dig through the rubble once the fire is put out, trying to see what's salvageable and searching for the bodies of anyone who might have still been inside the building when it burned to the ground the previous night. Melted bits of machinery and robot parts litter the landscape, but still the crew works on late into the wee hours of the morning. Just as the sun is coming up, one worker lets out a cry from near where the colossal entrance to the showcase had been.

"I think I've found something!" he shouts, and several other hurry over to see what he's located. Most gasp as the realize that it's a human arm. Working together, they dig the body out of a layer of ash and dust.

"Merciful heavens!" one cries when they see how badly the boy's body has been damaged. It's barely recognizable as human now, his lower legs and one arm completely gone.

"Do you think he's still alive?" one worker asks, removing his helmet in respect for the fallen.

The leader of the crew, a tall mad in his mid-forties, shakes his head sadly. "I doubt it," he answers. "It would take a miracle for him to have survived that fire."

It seems Heaven must be in the miracle making business that morning because suddenly the boy lets out a tiny moan.

"Oh my gosh!" the first worker cries, leaping back in surprise.

"Quick, get an ambulance!" the leader orders as soon as he's gotten over the initial shock. Phones are instantly out and within moments the local hospital is on the line and sending an emergency crew to meet them.

"Hang in there, son," the leader says, kneeling down next to the boy and taking the one remaining hand in his. "We're going to get you help. Just hang in there for a little bit longer…"

0o0

**Whoa, Tadashi's alive! YEAH! But what's going to happen to him now? Well, I guess that's what we're going to find out! If you were able to get through this chapter, the rest of the story should be a breeze! Again, soooo sorry about having to hurt Tadashi like this-seriously, he's probably my favorite character from the whole film-but it had to be done! I hope all of you could enjoy it at least a little bit. I'll try to update soon (I've written the whole story, it's more a matter of actually typing it up.) I'm not sure what to offer my reviewers after a chapter like this, except maybe a bowl of rocky road and some tissues to help you get over the angst! Can't wait to see y'all in the next chapter!**

**(For those of you who are interested in the Disney RP group I mentioned, please feel free to contact me for more details! It's an awesome community, with RPers from all over the world, and it's a fun way to meet fellow Disney fans while having adventures as your favorite character! We have a lot of available characters, ranging all the way back from Snow White to present day. Out of "Big Hero 6", only Honey Lemon, GoGo, and Tadashi are taken, so we'd really love to have you aboard if you'd like to be one of the other characters!)**

**Blessings and Peace! ~Bonnie :D **


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys! Thanks soooooo much to everyone who's faved/followed/reviewed this story so far. You have no idea how much I appreciate it! ^^ We left Tadashi in a pretty precarious position last chapter (Ooo, alliteration! Sorry, me getting easily distracted...) Now he's in the hospital, but things still aren't looking too good. What is his fate going to be? Well, read on to find out!

(Little side note: This chapter dedicated to my awesome friends Rebeccafairy and WDisneyRP-Honey-Lemon. Thank you guys for inspiring me to do this story and keeping me going on it! Love you both! :D)

0o0

Doctors rush around the surgical room in the intensive care unit. They've been working on this case for the past ten hours, and they've gotten the boy stable, but just barely. Any moment his fate can go in one way or the other, and as hard as they are all working to save him, they know that it's truly in God's hands. Still, the fact that the boy had somehow managed to survive the fire in the first place is enough to keep them hopeful.

"Doctor Peterson!" a nurse calls, coming through the swinging doors and addressing the head surgeon.

"Yes, what is it?" Doctor Peterson responds, wiping his sleeve across his forehead to clear away the sweat and wondering what could be so important that the nurse is interrupting their life-saving work.

"Doctor Elephun wishes to speak with you," the nurse answers with an apologetic smile. "He says it's urgent." Doctor Peterson's gaze shifts slightly at the name. He recognizes the name of the practitioner, and he's seen the small man about the hospital from time to time, but on a personal level he knows very little of him. To be honest, he's never put much stock in the department that Dr. Elephun runs. The so-called "Human Robotics lab" that he heads down in the basement of San Fransokyo General Hospital has always sounded like more of a mad scientist's game than anything. But this situation is desperate, and if the little man knows something that can be of use…

"Send him in," Dr. Peterson finally says.

"Actually, he insists that he speak to you in the halls in private," the nurse tells him nervously.

Dr. Peterson sighs—he has no time for games. Still, he calls to the other doctors, "Keep working. I want that heart beat steady by the time I get back!" before doing as directed and heading out into the hallway.

"Ah, good day to you," he is greeted by the tiny but widely built figure out in the dimly lit corridor.

"A good day to you," Dr. Peterson replies , not feeling this to be the time for pleasantries when a boy's life hangs in the balance but forcing himself to be civil. "How can I be of assistance to you?"

"Actually, I believe it is I who can be of assistance to you," Dr. Elephun replies with a smile.

Dr. Peterson sighs and rubs his forehead. He has no patience for games right now. "What do you want, Elephun?" he asks finally.

"Ah, good." Dr. Elephun smiles even wider. "I see we are being direct with each other, so I won't beat around the bush—we want the boy."

"Beg pardon?" Dr. Peterson blinks rapidly, trying to decide if he's heard the little man correctly.

"Those of us in the H.R. department—the Human Robotics department, that is. We want the boy that you're currently working on," Dr. Elephun answers.

"Yes, I am aware of your department. But tell me, why on Earth do you want him?"

"Simple—we want to help."

"How can you help?" Dr. Peterson tries to keep the skepticism out of his voice, but a bit gets through and Dr. Elephun doesn't miss it.

"Com over here." Dr. Elephun waves his confused colleague over to the door of the surgery room and together the look in. "Tell me, what do you see?"

"A boy who's just sustained a lot of injuries and is lucky to be alive."

"Exactly. And what sort of future does a boy like that have?"

"Well…" Dr. Peterson lets a tiny sigh escape him. "Not much of one, I'm afraid. If he's lucky, he'll be able to eventually get around using prosthetics, but it's doubtful. So much of his nervous system and organs were damaged that it's likely he'll be nothing more than a human vegetable, if you'll forgive me using the vernacular."

Dr. Elephun nodded his head, as if this was the answer that he'd been expecting. "And the family? Have they been contacted yet?"

"Truthfully? We don't know how to locate the family," Dr. Peterson replies. "We know he was found at the wreckage of the San Fransokyo University fire, but there were a lot of people there that night. We don't have a list of who all was there, so we can't even begin contacting people who might be the next of kin. All of the personal identifiers on him were burned up in the fire. All we have is the picture from his driver's license that we found in his wallet, a very charred photo of some girl, and nothing more."

"So even if you manage to save his life," Dr. Elephun says knowingly, "he has nowhere to go, no one to take care of him, and no way to support himself. How long do you think the hospital's going to let him stay here? A month? A few months, maybe? Eventually they'll give up on him and decide to pull the plug, and all of this work will be for nothing."

Dr. Peterson feels his bronchi tighten slightly at the words "pull the plug". He knows that Dr. Elephun is right. Sadly, if they can't come up with a good reason to keep the boy alive and be able to guarantee that he's actually experiencing a good quality of life, the hospital would eventually order them to end the boy's existence and all of their efforts would be for nothing. Slumping against the wall in slight defeat, he turns his eyes in Dr. Elephun's direction. "So what?" he finally gets out. "We just give up?"

"No, no, no." The little man shakes his head vigorously. "That's not what I'm saying at all. What I'm trying to tell you is that I think me and my team in the H.R. department can do something to help. Actually, I think we can do more than just something—I think we can fix everything!"

"Everything? How is that possible?" Dr. Peterson stares at the smaller gentleman in disbelief.

"We've been waiting for a chance like this for years," Dr. Elephun responds, sounding almost giddy with excitement. "For quite some time now, I've been fascinated by the idea of using robotics in the medical field to help replace limbs and organs that people are missing. My team and I have had great success in creating these supplementary body parts, but up until now we've never had anyone who was actually willing to give them a try." The doctor looks up at his taller cohort pleadingly, all traces of his previous mirth gone. "Please, let us help. We may be the boy's only chance to ever live a normal life again."

Dr. Peterson bites his lip, trying to decide what to do. As fantastical as Dr. Elephun's ideas sounded, if he was telling the truth, this might be the boy's only chance. But can they risk it? Could he really entrust the life of the boy into the hands of this man who, for all he knew, could be a total quack?

"Doctor Peterson!" One of his fellow surgeons pokes his head out of the door. "We've got a steady pulse and the oxygen from the tank seem to finally be circulating into his lungs and brain—what's left of them, anyway. What are your next orders?"

Dr. Peterson stiffens his jaw, his mind made up. "Strap him down and prepare him to be move," he calls, his words directed to the man who'd asked the question, but his eyes on the doctor who was now smiling next to him. "We're sending him to the H.R. department."

0o0

Ooh, things are getting interesting now! Just what exactly are they going to do to Tadashi? Well, we'll have to wait and see! At least we know there's hope now

And yes, for those of you noticed the reference, I did borrow the name of the character Dr. Elephun (Dr. Elefun in his source story, but I was trying to mix it up a bit!) from Astro Boy. No, it's not exactly the same character, and we're not doing crossovers (at least not yet…) but it just seemed like he really fit the bill for a doctor who knew what he was doing with robotics, and so he became my inspiration for this character. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed, and I can't wait to see you in the next chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone! Welcome to the next chapter of "Waking Up Again" :D I hope everyone's week is going well. I know my semester's going a little crazy, but I just want you guys to remember that we can get through this, no matter how insane things get! Last time we left Tadashi in a kind of precarious situation. Well, it's now six months later and things are starting to take a turn—whether for worse or the better, I'll let you decide! I don't want to keep stringing this out, so I'll let you get to reading and see you again at the bottom!

0o0

"Well, that about does it." The twenty-something boy with floppy brown hair and glasses that were taped across the bridge of his nose lets out a satisfied sigh.

"Yep, I think we've done just about everything we can for him," agrees the girl next to him, her blond bob swaying as she nods her agreement. She taps her pen against her clipboard as she lists off, "We've replaced his lungs and most of his gi tract with synthetics. We've wired him up with the best nervous system and artificial frontal lobe that can be built in a lab. He's got one robotic eye, one robotic arm, and two robotic legs, all fully articulated. We've set him up with both solar and traditional electrical charging abilities. And on top of that, he's about as indestructible as an armored truck, all while appearing completely human."

"You've done us all proud," Dr. Elephun tells them, putting an approving arm around each of their shoulders.

"So then why hasn't he woken up?" the boy asks, pushing his glasses up his nose and turning a questioning gaze to his mentor.

"Well, that's all up to him," Dr. Elephun answers, gesturing towards the boy on the hospital bed that they had spent the last six months carefully putting back together bit by bit. "Right now he's floating somewhere in his subconscious, and only he can decide when he's going to come back to the land of the living."

"Isn't there anything we can do to kind of speed things up?" the boy presses. "Play some loud music in here or put some coffee in his feeding tube or something?"

"No!" The girl jumps in before Dr. Elephun even has a chance to answer. "A shock like that could do permanent damage to him, mentally and physically-it could undo everything we've been working on for the past six months, you blockhead!"

"Thank you, Ophelia," Dr. Elephun tells the girl, giving her a look that says she should keep her rampaging in check. Then he turns back to the boy. "He just needs to do this gradually and on his own time, Travis," he explains in a gentler tone.

"Do you think he can at least hear us?" Travis presses, waving his hand in front of their patient's face as if he were only trying to snap him out of a light daze and not a months long coma.

"It's hard to say. Research is inconclusive as to whether patients in situations like these are aware of what's going on around them, and it really seems to vary from case to case," Dr. Elephun replies, looking slightly intrigued by the subject and leaning down to peer at the unconscious boy's expressionless features. "For all we know, he could be hearing every word we're saying, or if he could be off somewhere deep in his subconscious."

Ophelia lays a gentle hand on the boy's arm. "I wonder what he's thinking right now…"

0o0

Tadashi sits next to Honey Lemon up on the roof of the exposition building. He has no idea how they'd gotten up there, but he really doesn't care. It's too nice of an evening to waste it on worrying about something so insignificant. The night air is pleasantly cool. The crickets down below provide a soothing soundtrack to the scene. And the stars are all out, sparkling like diamonds in the velvet sky above the San Fransokyo Technological Institute. And speaking of diamonds…

"Um, Honey?" Tadashi softly says the name of his girlfriend, fingering the small box in his pocket. She turns to him, her gorgeous green eyes outshining all of the lights above them.

"Oh, Tadashi, it's all so beautiful!" she sighs happily, squeezing his arm with contentment.

"You're beautiful," he murmurs, taking her hand in his and making her blush in a pleased manner. He starts to pull the ring box out of his pocket as he takes a deep breath to begin the speech he's been preparing practically since he met her in Freshman year. But a sudden clap of thunder breaks the mood, sending chills down his spine. Glancing around, he realizes that the sky is suddenly full of menacing looking clouds that hadn't been there a minute before. Feeling panic seize his chest, he tells Honey, "We've got to get down from here. It's not safe!"

Honey Lemon nods, her eyes opening even wider than usual with fear. Tadashi takes her hand in his and together they race across the roof, looking for a way down. Around them thunder rumbles like angry battle drums and lightning begins to strike like vicious snakes. Suddenly a bolt touches down right between them, and Honey lets out a terrified shriek as she stumbles backward. It seems like only second later that the building had caught on fire, flames spreading across the roof like wildfire.

"Tadashi!" Honey cries, her voice filled with panic as the blaze grows ever bigger.

"Honey, it's going to be okay!" he calls back, desperately hoping that his words are true. He reaches out towards her and shouts through the fire, "Take my hand!"

Honey Lemon does as she's told, thrusting her arm out towards him. He catches it in his grasp, and for a moment that it seems that things will be okay, both of them smiling as they hold hands through the blaze. And then the roof gives way below Honey, and an instant later she's gone.

"Honey! NO!" Tadashi screams, racing forward and fruitlessly staring down through the hold the love of his life had just gone through. She can't be gone! She just can't! "Honey!" he cries again, hoping against hope that she might somehow still be alive down in the building's fiery interior.

Suddenly a crack of thunder and a flash of light alerts him to the fact that he's in immediate danger himself. Looking up, he realizes that a bolt of lightning is heading right for him. He tries to dive out of the way, but he's too late. He can feel the electricity transferring out of the air and into his body with almost energy-drink intensity. It seemed to fill every part of his body, coursing through his veins, causing his heart to start thumping with hammer-like rhythm, and triggering something off in his brain not unlike plugging in a Christmas tree. As white light fills his field of vision, he thinks he hears Honey Lemon's voice calling out to him, "Wake up Tadashi! Wake up!"

0o0

Man, that was a pretty intense chapter! Sorry to leave y'all with a terrible cliffhanger like that, but I promise that next week there will finally be some answers to what's happening to poor Tadashi. I'm giving out Baymax shaped cookies to all of my reviewers this week. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this chapter, and I can't wait to see you again next time! Have a safe and blessed week! ^^

~Bonnie


	4. Chapter 4

Hey everyone! It's chapter four, and I think you'll be quite glad to finally have 'Dashi conscious again! The only question is, how is he going to handle things now that he's finally cognizant? Well, dear readers, I'll leave that up to you to find out ;) See y'all at the bottom!

0o0

Tadashi awakes with a start to pitch blackness. He has no idea where he is or what's going on, but he certainly has his doubts as to whether it's anything good. His lower body is strapped down to what feels like a cold slab of metal. He can feel something weird attached to his neck, and the clothes that he's wearing certainly don't feel like any that he owns. Above and around him, he can hear panicked voices calling out something about a blackout and trying to stabilize the patients until the backup generators kick in.

"Am I in a hospital?" he wonders, his brain still very foggy as he tries to make sense of it all. What is he doing in the hospital? Then his brain grabs hold of a passing through his consciousness. The fire-the fire at the exposition hall! He'd gone in to try to save someone who was trapped in the burning building. But who? His brain calls up another memory-Honey Lemon! She'd fallen into the burning building! Was she still in danger? Was she safe now? He desperately needs to find out. Suddenly he finds that he can't stay where he is any longer. He struggles against his bond, but he's strapped down too tightly to escape.

"Consarnit!" he cries under his breath. Curse this stupid power outage! How is he supposed to get to Honey if he can't even manage to get free? If only there was a light so that he could see what he was doing.

Suddenly, as if in answer to his prayers, everything in the room starts glowing a dim green. "The emergency lights?" he wonders. For a moment the vision in his right eye seems to go in and out of focus, almost like a camera lens trying to adjust to the best setting. "Weird," he thinks, and then quickly forces the thought out of his mind. He has more important things to think about than his vision going wonky. As it is, he's finally able to see to undo the thick straps that are holding him down. It turns out that the weird feeling things on his neck are electrodes-nothing too difficult to deal with. He peels them off carefully and then swings his legs over the side of the bed. As soon as he stands up, he realizes that something's not quite right. About half of his body feels weird-heavier than he remembers and vaguely numb. he almost trips over his own feet as he tries to move forward and catches himself by grabbing onto a nearby tray. It almost instantly dumps its contents onto the floor with a loud "clatter", but as least he doesn't face plant. He forces himself to be still for a moment, wiggling his fingers and toes to try to get circulation going, assuming that he's just stiff from lying in one place from too long. His body seems to finally be waking up and before too long he's feeling almost completely back to normal. But just as he begins to take his next step towards finding Honey Lemon, he's suddenly confronted with the sound of two voice coming from nearby. Instinctively, he ducks behind a counter near the closest exit, not wanting to be seen until he knows what these people want.

"Did you hear that?" the first voice, masculine sounding, says.

"Yeah," a female agrees. "It sounded like someone knocked something over in the lab."

"And we were both out here, so unless it was Doctor Elephun-"

"Which we know it wasn't-"

"Do you think-do you think he could finally have woken up?"

"'He'?" Tadashi wonders, and then guesses that they must be talking about him.

"It could be," the female says, flipping on a flashlight and just barely missing tripping over Tadashi as she passes him. Tadashi forces himself to remain well-hidden and breathe as quietly as possible as the two strangers finish entering the room and take in the sight of the empty bed and tipped over tray.

"Oh my gosh, he's gone!" the male cries in an unusually high pitched voice that would ordinarily made Tadashi laugh if the situation weren't so serious.

"How did he escape?" the female asks, her voice becoming dark and sending a chill through Tadashi's already cold body.

"I don't know! Maybe the lighting that stuck the hospital was enough of a shock to finally wake him up."

The female mutters something under her breath and then says fiercely, "We can't let him get away! He's far too valuable, and we're not even sure if everything's functional. We need to find him and bring him back-alive."

"But what can we do?"

"You try to get ahold of security and have them lock down all of the exits if they aren't already with the power outage. I'll start searching the hospital for him. He can't have gone far, and we cannot let him escape."

Tadashi feels a slight stab of fear at her words. What's going on? Who are these people, and what exactly do they want with him? Why are they talking about him as if he's some sort of prisoner? Well, he isn't about to stick around and find out. As quietly as he can, he slips out into the corridor. Everything's still pretty dark out there, but at least the green light he'd had back in the lab seems to be on out in the hallway as well. He uses the dim illumination to navigate the passage as quickly as he can. About halfway down the hall, he realizes that he's only dressed in a hospital gown and that if he wants to evade detection, he'd better get on some regular clothes. Ducking into a closet marked "Scrubs", he ditches the thin paper garment for a hospital uniform, feeling somewhat bad about taking them without permission but promising himself that he'll return them as soon as possible. Then he heads back out into the main hall, only to find that the main lights had come back on. That's good in that he can see his way more clearly now, but not so good in that other people can now see-including the two crazy people who seem to be after him.

As if on cue, he suddenly hears someone shout, "You!" He spins around to see an angry looking blond running towards him. "Get back here! You're not supposed to be-"

Tadashi doesn't stick around to hear what he's not supposed to be doing. Instead, he takes off down the hallway again. Ahead of him, he sees the emergency exit. As much as he dreads setting off the alarm and drawing even more attention to himself, he decides to chance it and hits the door with marathon runner intensity. As he'd expected, the alarm starts blaring as soon as he does, startling the few people out in the parking lot this late at night. He winces, but doesn't stop to apologize. He keeps running, barely feeling the cold pavement below his bare feet. By the time that his pursuer reaches the door, he's on the far side of the parking lot and out of her range. Still, he hears her calling after him, "It doesn't matter where you run-we will find you!"

Tadashi tries to brush away the eerie warning and instead focused on his original mission of finding Honey Lemon. At first he travels somewhat aimlessly through the streets, trying to get his bearings. He isn't quite sure where he was in the city, having never really spent too much time in this part of town. He also isn't sure where to go first to look of Honey. His first instinct is to head to the university where he remembers last seeing her. But another, stronger part of him, is telling him to head to her apartment. He doesn't know why, especially since it makes more sense that she'd be back at the scene of the fire or, even worse, possibly in the same hospital he's just escaped from. But it's like his odd inner certainty that he'll find her at home is overriding everything else. He finds himself heading in that general direction before he even had much of a chance to think about it. After a little ways, he suddenly realizes that he's been unconsciously following a small red dot that had appeared in his field of vision. He blinks, trying to clear it away, but it won't leave. It gives him an uncomfortable sense of foreboding, but he tries to just ignore it as best he can and concentrate on finding Honey.

After a good 45 minutes of walking, he finally find himself in Honey's neighborhood. He still doesn't know what the dot is, but he's grateful that it had led him where he needed to go. The closer he gets to Honey's home, the stronger the sense he has of her presence. It's slightly uncanny just how strong the feeling is, but he's too focused on finding his girlfriend and making sure that she's alright to care. He turns the corner that leads onto her street, full of hope-

*System Error*

What? Tadashi looks around for the source of the voice. Was there a robot nearby that was malfunctioning? If so, was it in need of help?

*System Error* *Low Battery*

There it was again, so close that it almost sounds like it's coming from inside of his own head-

He freezes as he sees the little red dot start flashing, and then the words, "Warning! Warning! Low Battery!" scrolling across his field of vision.

"What...the...heck?" he murmurs, not believing his eyes. There was no way that he could be seeing this. The only ones who got "System Error" messages were robots and computers, neither of which he was-right?

Suddenly he isn't so sure. He thinks about the red do in his vision that had led him to Honey's neighborhood. He remembers the weird way his body had felt when he'd woken up in the hospital. And then the words of that girl who's been chasing him earlier come back to him: "We can't let him get away! He's far too valuable, and we're not even sure if everything's functional."

"What the hey did the do to me?" he cries under his breath. He doesn't have much time to consider this, though, as a sudden wave of exhaustion hits him. His vision in his right eye starts to blur and it feels as if his limbs weigh a ton each. If the warnings he was seeing a few moments earlier are any indication, he's running out of power-a thought that he really doesn't like to entertain, as the concept sounds too much like something out of a sci-fi novel, not real life. But he even more so doesn't like to entertain the idea of passing out in the middle of the street where who knows what can happen to him. He's only a little ways from Honey's now. Gathering up all of the strength that he has left, he forces himself to keep going, even though it feels like he's dragging the weight of an entire truck with him. If nothing else, he needs to make sure that Honey made it out of the fire okay. This thought is enough to spur him on the last leg of the journey. He finally reaches the stairs that lead up to Honey's home and he drags himself up them, more crawling then walking at this point. With his last bit of energy, he reaches up and pushes the doorbell. He allows his head to rest on the doormat until he hears the sound of footsteps approaching. A moment later the door swings open and he hears a high pitched scream.

He forces himself to look up. "H-Honey Lemon?" he manages to get out, staring up into the beautiful green eyes he'd been afraid he would never see again.

"T-Tadashi?" the girl stammers out, looking like she's seen a ghost.

Tadashi doesn't have the strength to try to figure out why she seems so shocked to see him. From what he can tell, she's okay. There isn't a scratch or a burn on her. She's safe, and that's what matters.

*Mission Complete* *Force Shutdown*

Tadashi closes his eyes, and the world goes peacefully black.

0o0

Wow! Talk about a crazy chapter! Tadashi's out of the hospital, but is he really any better off now that he's out in the world with no idea of what's happening to him? At least he made it to Honey Lemon's, but will things really appear much brighter when (if?) he wakes up again? Well, on that terrible cliffhanger, I'll leave you until next week! (Sorry, I know I'm a horrible person, but you'll just have to be patient.) Mint chocolate chip cookies to all of my reviewers, and I'll see y'all next weekend with chapter five! God bless y'all, and have a wonderful week ~Bonnie


	5. Chapter 5

Okay, hey everyone! I know some of you weren't very satisfied with the last chapter, but hopefully this one will tie up a lot of the loose ends :) Hopefully you enjoy it, but if you don't, please at least have the common courtesy not to flame. I'm doing what I can to make this story enjoyable for all of you-please keep that in mind as you read. Thanks!

0o0

"Dr. Elephun!" Ophelia rushes into the office of her mentor, Travis at her side. "Bad news! The patient broke loose during the power outage, and now he's run off!"

"I know," Dr. Elephun replies calmly, spinning around in his chair and turning to face them.

"We have no idea where he is, and he could be in grave dang—" She cuts herself off midsentence, her eyes going wide with confusion as the words sink in. "Wait, you already know? But how?"

"Simple, my dear." Dr. Elephun gestures for both of his assistants to join him at his computer. "I had hoped that the patient's transition back into consciousness would be a peaceful one—that we'd be able to slowly reintroduce him back into functioning in everyday life and help him get used to his new body. Heaven knows that it's difficult enough when you have to get used to one new limb and not a whole slew of them." He flexes his own hand, a robotic replacement he'd fashioned for himself after losing his own arm in a tragic accident years back—the same incident that had sparked his interest in the field of using robotics to help humans who had gone through similar situations to live their lives again. "But," he continues, bringing up a map of the city on his computer, "as much as I hoped for the best, I also prepared for the worst, so when we were doing the repairs, I built in a couple of safety features—a tracking device."

"You did _what_?!" Travis looks slightly worried by this news.

"Isn't that violating his rights somehow?" Ophelia puts in.

"Not to worry," Dr. Elephun reassures them, even as he zeroes in on a little red dot on the map. "It's only in the medical bracelet he was wearing—the ones that all the patients in the hospital wear. He can get rid of that easily enough, but it's enough to let us know where he is and if he's safe."

"Well, if we know where he is, why don't we go get him?" Ophelia asks, biting at the bit with impatience. "He was on a very low charge where he left. I think the lightning strike gave him a little extra power, but not much. He's probably wandering around in a daze or passed out somewhere by now!"

"No, he's not," Dr. Elephun returns "Because of the second safeguard I put in. I knew that once he was conscious, we'd need to find out who he was and where his family lived if he had one, or else to another loved one we could contact them and let them know that he was alright. Unfortunately, I also knew that after being in a coma and suffering all of the trauma that he did, his memories might have been damaged, or at least greatly suppressed. Thus, when we were going through his personal affects near the beginning, trying to figure out who he was, and I discovered the charred remains of a picture of a girl, I took the liberty of planting that image in the part of his cranium we restored with the built-in mission to locate her as soon as he left the hospital so that he'd at least be able to be with someone he knew."

"Dr. Elephun, that's definitely a violation of his rights!" Ophelia looks slightly horrified. "He's still a human, not a machine to be programmed!"

"I know, I know," the doctor agrees. "I can't say it was the best of ideas. But I was all I could think of at the time."

Ophelia still doesn't look fully pleased by the news, but she nods her head gravely. "All right, I understand why you did it. But tell me, do you really think he'll find the girl?"

"Absolutely." Dr. Elephun points to the screen. "His system won't let him shut down until he does—no matter how low his charge gets. The fact that he's currently located in a residential area and has stopped moving is a good sign that he's found her."

"Or it's a sign that he got hit by a car and he's lying in the middle of the street completely unconscious," Ophelia answers sourly, crossing her arms in frustration.

"No, no, he's definitely inside a house," Dr. Elephun replies, either missing or choosing to ignore her sarcasm as he zooms in further on the map. "Apt 21B, Marvel Ave, to be exact."

"So should we go get him?" Travis pipes up, finally making his way back into the conversation.

"No," Dr. Elephun responds after a moment's thought. "Let's let him rest for tonight. We'll go see how he is tomorrow."

After a tiny bit more arguing, Ophelia and Travis both finally agree to this arrangement and return to their homes after the long and emotionally stressful evening. But Dr. Elephun stays a little bit longer in his office, staring at the red dot on the screen. "My boy, it may seem like your life is over," he says softly, a slight smile on his lips, "but in truth, your future is just beginning."

0o0

*charging complete*

*initiate reboot in 4… 3… 2… 1*

Tadashi awakes to the blinding light of the sun pouring down onto his face. He instinctively pulls his blanket up over his head, trying to protect to eyes and keep from being woken up before he was ready. Whose bright idea was it to leave the window? If this was Hiro's idea of a joke…

Tadashi's eyes snapped open as he catches a whiff of raspberry on the comforter. Wait a minute—this isn't his blanket. Pulling the quilt down, he realizes that he isn't in his room either. Feeling somewhat panicky, he sits up on the couch, he's been passed out for the past who knows how long. Eventually he feels his heartbeat slows as he realizes that he's in Honey's apartment. The periodic table design on the quilt should have immediately tipped him off. It takes him another minute to remember why he's in her apartment, and then he lets out a long groan as the memories of the previous night come back to him. What a mess his life had become in such a short period of time! He tries his best to ignore the fact that he can distinctly feel electricity flowing through three of his limbs—it's still too weird to think about the fact that somehow he's part robot now. It suddenly occurs to him that he hasn't seen Honey yet, and he wonders if she's out. A noise from the next room tells him otherwise, and suddenly feeling the need to see her, he gets up off of the couch and make his way across the small living room to the door of the kitchenette. He stands there for a minute, feeling content just to be watching her. Even though in his mind the Expo had only been one or two nights ago, it feels like it's been a very long time since he's last seen her. Not paying as much attention to what he was doing as he should have been, he leans up against the doorpost and, not compensating for the extra weight of his new limbs, he accidentally stumbles forward with a tiny yelp. The noise is enough to startle Hone Lemon away from whatever she was doing at the stove. She whirls around and stares at Tadashi with wide eyes.

"Hey," he greets her, giving her an embarrassed smile.

He was completely unprepared for her reaction. She let out an ear piercing shriek and lifted up a frying pan from the drainer. "D-don't come any closer!" she cries, waving the pan at him in a threatening manner.

"What on Earth—Honey Lemon, what are you doing?" Tadashi asks, feeling a slight stab of fear. "I-it's me, Tadashi!"

"You're not Tadashi!" Honey Lemon shouts, tears filling her eyes. "The real Tadashi died six months ago in the fire!"

"I-I what?" Tadashi blink his eyes in surprise, trying to make sense of what she's saying. Dead six months ago? How was that even possible? "Wait, wasn't the fire, like, just two nights ago?"

"Hah, that proves that you're a fake!" Honey Lemon tells him with a cold laugh. "If you were Tadashi you'd know that the Expo took place six months ago! Tadashi died going in to save Professor Callaghan!"

Tadashi feels a moment of confusion and then his memory clears. That's right, he had gone in after Professor Callaghan! He didn't know why he'd thought that it had been Honey Lemon in danger. He can still remember the image of Honey falling into the fiery building, but now that he thinks about it, he realizes that it must have been a dream. But now he wonders just how long he'd been stuck in that dream.

"I don't know who or what you are," Honey Lemon continued, looking like she was starting to reach for her purse and, assumedly, her phone to call the police. "But if this is some sick, twisted plot to try to get at me and the others, it isn't going to work!"

"Honey, I swear to you that it really is me!" Tadashi says, risking reaching a hand out towards her to try to stop her from doing something he knew they'd both regret later.

"No, you're not!" Honey has tears rolling down her cheeks now.

"How do you know?" Tadashi asks.

"What?"

"How do you know for sure that I'm not Tadashi?"

Honey Lemon looks honestly startled by the question, and then bites her lip before finally blurting out, "Because you're a robot!"

Tadashi winces slightly at the accusation. Apparently she'd figured out more than he'd realized while he was passed out on the porch the previous night. He can't deny that at least part of him is robotic now, but how does he get her to look that part? Heck, how does he get himself to look past that part? Well, he can figure that part out later—for now he needs to focus on getting Honey to believe.

"Look, Honey Lemon," he says softly. "I don't know exactly what has happened to me. From what you've said, apparently I've been dead to the world for the past six months. But it really is me. Look!" He reaches over to the counter and picks up a knife. Honey instantly cowers back, apparently afraid that he's going to try to use it on her. But instead he just gently nicks his still human arm with it. "See?" He holds the injured flesh out to her so she can see the blood coming to the surface. "Only a human could bleed like that."

_Or a partial human_, he grimly adds in his mind.

Honey Lemon stares at the wound with a mixture of emotions on her face. Tadashi can tell that he's gaining ground, that she's starting to believe him, so he quickly pushes onwards. "Tell me, honestly, why did you bring me in last night?"

"B-because…Well, you looked and sounded like Tadashi," Honey Lemon responds haltingly. "And I thought that maybe there was some chance that you were still alive, and I just wanted it so badly to be true. But then I felt the metal under you skills and—"

"Forget about that for a second." Tadashi holds her gaze, wishing that he could see the old light in them that he was so used to. "What would it take to prove to you that I'm Tadashi?"

Honey considers this. "Tell me something that only the real Tadashi would know," she finally answers.

"Oh, gosh, where do I start?" Tadashi gives her an amused grin. "We met a Freshman Orientation. You were wearing that adorable flower print skirt that I love, and I got so nervous talking to you that I actually tripped over our orientation leader. You always have a pack of sugar free strawberry cheesecake gum on hand in case GoGo runs out. Your lab project is chemical metal embrittlement, mine is a nursing robot name Baymax. Your favorite scent is raspberry, which is why you always smell like one. Last winter we snuck out with the others in the lab in the middle of the night to take the polar bear challenge in the university pool, but you were too scared to tell us that you couldn't swim so I had to jump in and save you. I hurried you all the way back to the lab wrapped up in my blazer. And while everyone else was out getting you that low fat mocha almond chai tea latte that you love, I stayed with you love and that was—well, that was the first time I ever told you that I loved you."

Honey Lemon's eyes go wide with recognition and she reaches out a wavering hand towards him. "T-Tadashi? Is it really you?"

"It's really me," Tadashi answers, opening his arms to her. A moment later, she's in his embrace, sobbing like a little child. He's careful not to hug her too tightly, still not sure of his own strength, but he leans his cheek down to rest on the top of her head. This…this is what he's been aching for for the last six months while he was out of commission in the hospital. He doesn't know what the future holds for him, but right here, right now, he's home.

"Do you smell something burning?" he asks after a minute, his nose suddenly wrinkling up at the distinct smell of charred food.

"Oh my gosh, the fried rice!" Honey Lemon cries. "I totally forgot about it!" She quickly extricates herself from his grasp and rushes over to the stove where the pan is starting to smoke. The rice, unfortunately, is beyond reconciliation, so she just dumps it into the trash and calls for takeout before motioning for him to follow her out into the living room so they can talk.

"I still can't believe that you're actually here!" Honey says as they settle down onto the couch. Tadashi notices that she's keeping a tight hold on his hand, as if afraid that he's a ghost that will disappear at any second if she lets him go. "Where have you been? What happened to you? Hiro saw you go into the fire and then that big fire ball came out of nowhere and we were sure that you'd died, even though they never found the body—"

"Hey, slow down," Tadashi chuckles, trying to focus more so on the amusing way that she was talking too fast for him to get a word in than the rather unnerving thought of his own almost death, and the thought of how painful it must have been for everyone thinking that he was dead. How had they handled it, especially Hiro? Oh gosh, since he'd actually seen him going in, he must have been absolutely traumatized—

"Sorry," Honey apologizes, breaking into his thoughts. She gives him the embarrassed half-smile that he'd always found so adorable. "I just have so many questions!"

"To be honest, so do I," Tadashi admits with a slight sigh.

"Really? How so?" Honey looks up at him with concern.

"When I said earlier that I thought the fire had been only two night ago, I wasn't kidding," Tadashi answers, feeling a slight twist in his gut that he'd missed out on a full six months of his life, but he quickly pushes past it. "I remember the fire, and going in to save Professor Callaghan, but that's it. The next thing I knew, I was waking up strapped to a table in some lab in San Fransokyo General. I barely managed to escape while the lights were out due to a power outage—I thought for sure that the crazy people there were going to come after me, but fortunately they didn't and so I came here."

"Why here?" Honey asks, her eyes wide with confusion. "Why not home to Hiro and your Aunt? They've probably been missing you even worse than I have!"

"I don't know," Tadashi replies honestly. "I mean, I sort of do—while I was knocked out I had this dream that you were the one who was trapped in a burning building and when I woke up, I thought that you were in danger. But aside from that—I don't know, I just felt that I had to find you."

Honey Lemon nods, blushing slightly, and then her eyes light up. "Oh my gosh, we have to tell everyone that you're okay! They're going to be so excited to see you again!"

Before he even has time to think about it, Tadashi suddenly blurts out, "No!"

"No?" Honey looks up at him with confusion in her eyes. "What do you mean, 'no'? Everyone's been so affected by your loss—I mean, don't you want to see them?"

"I-it's complicated," Tadashi sighed, running his finger through his hair agitatedly. He doesn't know exactly why he feels this way, but something's holding him back from being able to see everyone again, but he tries his best to put it into words. "For one thing, there's still the crazy people from the lab who are probably still looking for me—who knows what they'd do if word got out as to where I was? They'd never leave me alone!"  
"But we're your friends," Honey counters gently. "You know that we'd keep your secret, and besides, the more of us who know, the more people who can make sure that you're safe and protected."

Tadashi nods slightly. Her words make sense, but that doesn't mean he's fully convinced. "It's not just that the people from the lab are looking for me, though," he says, his voice barely above a whisper as he finally finds himself forced to come to grips with his new reality. "It's this." He holds out his robotic arm towards her.

"Your… arm?" she says slowly, staring at it blankly. "You don't want to see anyone because of your arm?"

"Not just because of my arm," Tadashi answers, hating the slight anger mixed with fear that he can't keep from leaking into his voice. "It's my arm, and my legs, and Heaven knows what all else! Honey Lemon, I'm part robot now! I may look human on the outside, but I have no clue what all they did to me back there! For all I know, I'm some sort of human guinea pig. I don't even know if I'm still a person or not! How are the others supposed to accept me when I'm not who I was? I mean, just look at how freaked out you were when you first found out!"

"Tadashi…" Honey Lemon looks momentarily guilty and then lays a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It doesn't matter whether you're all human or part machine—you're still you. The other will still care about you the same way they always have, no matter what."

Tadashi shakes his head obstinately before saying what's truly on his mind. "How can I expect them to accept me…when I can't even accept myself?"

Honey Lemon studies his face, doing her thing where she tries to read what someone's thinking by their facial expression. Finally she answers, "I think that's something that only you are going to be able to deal with. But it's not fair to everyone else to keep this from them when they've been so worried about you."

Tadashi lets out a slow sigh. "Just—just give me some time to think about it, okay?" he finally responds.

Seeing the pained look on his face, Honey Lemon finally nods. "All right," she agrees, reaching up and tucking a lock of hair fondly behind his ear. "I'll keep your secret for now. But promise me that you really will think about it."

"I will," he promises, truly meaning it. For a moment they just sit there, enjoying being in each other's company, Tadashi letting his fingers mingle in Honey's long hair and she gently massaging his prosthetic hand with hers. Tadashi marvels at the fact that he could actually feel her touch on his apparently synthetic skin as well as he could with his natural one. Maybe this new body isn't so different after all—

"Beep-beep-bee-beep!" Honey Lemon and Tadashi are both suddenly startled by the sound of a cellphone going off. Without a word, Honey instantly jumps off of the couch and rushes into the kitchen. She came back a minute later, a pink and orange purse with the periodic table of elements in a heart shape on it thrown over her shoulder and looking like she's preparing to leave.

"Wait where are you going?" Tadashi asks in confusion.

"Uh…there's been a sort of emergency," Honey Lemon answers a little evasively, suddenly sounding guilty.

"Anything I should know about?" Tadashi presses, hoping that none of their friends are in danger. Despite his current aversion to seeing them, that doesn't mean that he doesn't still care deeply about them.

"Oh, n-no," Honey Lemon stammers, forcing a smile onto her face. "Just—just something I need to go take care of real quick. I should be back in less than an hour, okay?"

Tadashi is about to protest, but she gives him a quick kiss on the cheek and that's enough to immobilize him until she's already out the door. For a little while he just sits there, feeling restless and seriously wishing that he's gone after her. As he thinks this, the little red dot from the night before appears in his field of vision, but he resists the urge to follow it. Obviously this is something that Honey wants to have some privacy about, otherwise she would have told him about it. For a moment he worries that maybe the "emergency" has something to do with a guy—it she'd moved on in his absence. But no, he tells himself. She's obviously still as much in love with him as he is with her. Still, somehow he can't shake the feeling that something isn't quite right.

Trying to get the troubling thoughts out of his head, she turns on the TV, just for a distraction. Since it's midday, so his only choice is soap operas or the local news. He settles on the news, keeping the volume low so as not to arouse the suspicions of the neighbors. Some story is on about an office building catching fire downtown. Usually he would have paid more attention to it, but a sudden knock on the door distracts him. For a moment he wonders who on Earth would be visiting Honey Lemon's in the middle of the day, and then he remembers that she'd ordered takeout food and realizes that it must have finally arrived. Well, it would be a shame to waste it, especially since she'd already paid for it over the phone and he was half starved at this point. Who knew how long it had been since he'd last had an actual meal? He gets up to answer the door, but when he opens it he is confronted by someone who is most definitely not the delivery person—not unless the delivery person of the restaurant Honey Lemon called wears business attire covered by a long white lab coat.

It takes him a full thirty seconds for his brain to process what he's seeing, and then something like a trigger flips on in his mind and he realizes that this man must be from the hospital. Instantly he starts to slam the door shut, but before it can fully close the man puts his foot in the gap and cries, "Wait!"


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone! Sooooo sorry for making you wait so long, but here is *finally!* the next chapter of "Waking Up Again"! Please enjoy, and thanks so much again for sticking with me!

0o0

"Wait?" Tadashi growls to the man on the other side of the door. "For what? You and your helpers to drag me back to the hospital and perform more experiments on me?"

"Please," the man pleads with him. "I know you must be scared and confused, but I promise you that I'm only here to help you! I have the answers to all of your questions if you'll just give me a chance to speak."

"Yeah, I'm sure you've got answers, but at what price?" Tadashi spits. "My freedom? The rest of my life? No thanks!"

"I swear to you, the last thing we want to do is keep you from being able to live your life to its fullest! Why do you think we reconstructed you after the fire-for the fun of it? We wanted to help you!"

Tadashi considers the little man's words. It's true, it wouldn't make much sense for the lab to have done what they did for no purpose. Was it possible that they'd really been trying to save his life just for the sake of saving it?

"So you _don't_ want to drag me back to your lab and lock me up?" he asks, just to clarify.

"Absolutely not," the man agrees. "The last thing we want to do is see you back in the hospital now that you're up and about and able to function fine on your own."

"On my honor as a doctor and on the Hippocratic Oath I took when I entered this field."

Tadashi bites his lip, feeling conflicted. The stronger seemed to be telling the truth. His face was open and honest, and Tadashi wanted to be able to trust him. He needed someone who had answers to be able to tell him what was happening to him. But how did he know for sure that this man could be trusted?

"What sign can you give me beyond your word that you aren't going to stuff me in a bag the moment I let you in?"

The little man laughed. "Well, for one thing, I seriously doubt that I could manage to do that. We equipped you a little too well to be able to be taken down easily. But aside from that, maybe this will convince you." He reached over and, to Tadashi's amazement, disengaged his left arm from its socket. Tadashi could see the loose wires coming from it and the man held it out so the boy could inspect it before putting it back into place. "You're not the only one whose ever lost a limb and lived to tell the tale," the man says with a soft smile as he articulated the fingers on the prosthetic to prove his point.

Tadashi, not knowing what to say, wordlessly opens the door to allow him in.

"Ah, thank you." The man smiles at him as he comes inside. Once Tadashi's closed the door, that man turns around and says, "I don't believe I properly introduced myself yet. I'm Doctor Elephun."

"Tadashi," Tadashi responds, taking the hand that the doctor offers him and shaking it. "Tadashi Hamada."

"Tadashi Hamada?" The doctor's eyes go wide. "You mean the same Tadashi Hamada who had his work published in the_ Los Angeles Medical Journal_ for his work on creating a robotic nurse?"

"Y-yeah," Tadashi agrees, surprised to know that anyone knew or even cared about that.

"Splendid! I still have that article. In my office—I was very impressed by it. "

Tadashi finds himself blushing from the praise. "Oh, it's nothing that special…" he protests.

"Well, all the same, it's very nice to finally get to officially meet you," Dr. Elephun says with a friendly grin. "I may have been working on you for the past six months, but it's nice to finally have a name to go with the face." He takes a seat on the wall worn-recliner and Tadashi sits across from him on the couch. Once they'd settled, he tells Tadashi, "Well, I'm sure your bursting with questions, so fire away."

Tadashi nods. He does have a lot of things that he's been wanting to know, but suddenly trying to grasp one solid question. Trying to catch one is like trying to catch a butterfly with your bare hands. Finally, one comes to him. "Why?" he asks. "Why, out of all the other hundreds and thousands of people in this city, did you pick me to rebuild? I mean, I know that must have been pretty expensive and time consuming. What made me special?"

"Well, a lot of things went into it," Dr. Elephun admits, folding his hands together as he considers the question. "For one thing, how badly you were injured actually made you a prime candidate. My assistants and I have been working for quite some time on creating artificial robotic body parts to help those who have lost their own to be able to continue living a fairly normal life. But up until then, while we'd had some applicants to be test subjects, for the most part they only had one or two body parts which needed to be replaced. It would have taken a very long time to test our devices out on a case by case basis. But with you, well, we could test out quite a number of our systems all at once. On top of that, you were in such dire straits that we were allowed to work on you without having to go through all of the legal red tape. We and you had nothing to lose and everything to gain."

"So basically I was just the right person coming along at the right time?"

"To an extent. But on top of that, I could just tell there was something special about you the minute I hear about you. I said to myself, Elephun, if that boy has managed to survive even after everything he'd been through, it means at least one of two things: one, that your time here on Earth wasn't meant to be up yet, and two, that you must have had something or someone that you were trying to hold on for. SO I figured either way I'd be furthering Providence and I asked to take your case."

Tadashi nods. He hadn't really thought of everything that way, but it makes sense. "So," he begins slowly once he's taken a minute to process through the information, "exactly how much of me is robotic?"

"Quite a lot, I'm afraid," Doctor Elephun admits with a slight sigh. "There wasn't much of left of you to work with, so we had to build a good bit of it from scratch or else add in parts so that you could function properly. Your arm and both of your legs, of course, had to be replaced. A good bit of your digestive tract and your lungs, as well. Oh, and I'll warrant you've noticed that you now have exceptionally good vision in your right eye."

"Yeah," Tadashi agrees. "Except for this little red dot that keeps showing up in my field of vision. It lead me here last night, but now—well, I don't want to sound like a stalker or anything, but I think it's keeps wanting to lead me to wherever my girlfriend is."

"Really?" The doctors brow wrinkles up in confusion. That should have warn is off after that first time. Perhaps the programming is having some unexpected side effects…"

"Beg pardon?" Tadashi blinks his eyes rapidly, wondering if he'd just heard the doctor correctly.

Dr. Elephun gave him a slightly sheepish smile. "I guess I've got a bit of a confession to make. Partly because there was already damage done to it, apparently from having something hard fall on your head at some point, and partially because you needed to be able to have the connection in place to be able to control all of your new robotic limbs, we had to recreate part of the frontal lobe of your cranium."  
"Cranium?" Tadashi asks, although has a pretty good idea of what the doctor's referring too.

"Sorry, I meant brain," Dr. Elephun responds with a slight chuckle. "Sorry, my assistants make fun of me for my old fashioned words too."

Tadashi nods, but honestly he's more concerned with what exactly they'd done with his brain than what words were used to describe it. "So what exactly does this have to do with a little red dot that's keeping track of my girlfriend?"

"Well, you could say I built a sort of safety feature." Dr. Elephun answers, now looking slightly nervous. "I knew that when you woke up, there was a chance that your memory might not be the best after being in a coma for so long, so I created a way to make sure that you'd be able to be reconnected with your loved ones. So when I found the remains of a picture in your wallet—or what was left of it—of the young lady, I programmed it in so that once you were well enough to leave the hospital, your first instinct would be to seek her out."

"I see." Tadashi didn't know how he felt about someone else messing with his head like that. The word 'programming' especially perturbed him—programming was something you did to robots, not people. It certainly wasn't helping his semi-identity crisis any.

"I'm so sorry if I overstepped my bounds," the doctor tells him, mistaking Tadashi's silence for anger.

"No, it's fine," Tadashi responds, trying to smile and not let on just how freaked out this conversation is making him. "It's just—how exactly did I know where to find her? I was completely lost when I left the hospital, but the dot led me right here."

"That was probably the gps system," Doctor Elephun answers, looking proud. "You had only to think of her location and it would lead you to her."

"A gps. Of course they put in a gps," Tadashi thinks, his hopes of normalcy declining by the second. But what he said was, "I didn't actually know where she was, though. In fact, I was led here even though I thought she was somewhere completely different. How can you explain that?"

Dr. Elephun strokes his beard, as if deep in thought. "I can't quite explain that, to be honest. "I can't quite explain that, to be honest. But then, the inner workings of the humans brain are still a mystery, even to someone who's spent as many years studying it as I have. I can only guess that whatever emotional connection you have with the young lady has someone manifested itself in a way that none of us could have predicted."

As the doctor becomes more and more excited as he ramble on, Tadashi's feeling more and more dead inside. Finally, not able to stand any more talk about the vast mysteries of the human body, he cuts in, "All right, I'm sorry, as fascinating as all this is, could you maybe simplify it and just tell me everything else I need to know about being a robot?"

The doctor's eyes flashed slightly at that, as if picking up on something in Tadashi's tone of voice, but he merely answers, "Oh, of course. Forgive me, sometimes my excitement just runs away with me. All right, so basic things you need to know—you're going to have to nourish both your physical and mechanized parts. You can go back to eating regular food as soon as you've readjusted—I'd start slow, though, since you've been on a feeding tube for the past six months and your new system isn't used to solid food yet. Fluids only, and then eventually work your way back up to solids."

"Right." Tadashi nods, brightening as he remembers learning about recovering coma patients in one of his own medical classed and glad that he can put the knowledge to good use.

"As for the rest of you—well, I assume you already know, it runs on electricity."

"Yeah," Tadashi agrees, his mood quickly sinking back down.

"You can usually compensate for that by spending about a good half an hour out in the sun a day," Dr. Elephun continues. "We wanted you to be able to gain power from solar energy. However, from time to time, if you expend a large amount of energy all at once or don't happen to get outside that day, you can charge using regular electricity." The doctor reaches into coat and pulled out a clear plastic bag which contained a coil of black wire and four white square pads. "We made the charger look and work like electrodes, and there are instructions in the bag if you need them."

"Right." Tadashi accepts the bag from the doctor, feeling slightly better about the whole charging process now that he won't need to do anything too out of the ordinary. "Anything else?"

"Well…" The doctor takes off his glasses and polishes then as he thinks. "Not really—except that you may like to know that the parts of you which we rebuilt are pretty much indestructible. They'll be stronger than the ones you're used to, and you won't experience fatigue in them like you would with regular limbs, so you'll probably find that you can lift more, go faster, and travel further than you could before."

"So any crazy hidden weaponry I should know about?" Tadashi asks, part joking and part because he was afraid that maybe they actually had.

"No my dear boy," Dr. Elephun chuckles. "Aside from a few nonvisible improvements, we tried to make everything as close to normal as possible for you."

"Okay." Tadashi feeling somewhat relieved about that fact.

But Dr. Elephun stares him down for a moment. "Somehow, I feel that everything isn't quite 'okay'. Let me guess—you're still having a hard time with all of this, aren't you?"

Tadashi ducks his head, feeling somewhat exposed form having the doctor so quickly guess his true feelings, and also slightly embarrassed. "I know that I should be grateful," he finally gets out. "I mean, I got a second chance at life. I survived what's probably one of the worst things a person can go through and thanks to you, I'll be able to live a fairly normal life. But…"

Dr. Elephun nods his head sagely. "I understand completely. I felt exactly the same way when I lost my arm."

"If you don't mind my asking," Tadashi begins tentatively. "How—"

"Did I lose it?" Dr. Elephun doesn't seem at all offended by the question. "I was stationed overseas in the last war as a medical officer. One day I was attending to a poor soul on the battlefield when an AED went off. I managed to push the soldier out of the way—even save his life. But as for me, I woke up hours later in the medical tent, missing an arm and half of my face. They told me that I was lucky to be alive. They patched me up and then sent me home, but all I could think of was what I was missing, not what I had left. I wouldn't see my family or friends because I didn't want anyone to see me the way that I was, even after I'd undergone reconstructive surgery and gotten a prosthetic limb. And then one morning, I woke up and realized that I was tired of hiding, and that if I wanted thing to changer, I should do something about it. That's when I started my research into robotic limb replacement, so I could help other who were like me. Sure, I got a lot of funny looks from people when I first started going out into public with my first prototypes. But you know what I learned from those experiments.

Tadashi shakes his head, too wrapped up in the story to give a real answer.

"That it really doesn't matter what most people think of you. What matters is what you think of you, and the people who are really worth your time and emotions will love and care about you no matter what you look like."

Tadashi feels a smile spread across his face at these words. The Doctor is right—he can't spend the rest of his life hiding out in Honey Lemon's apartment, and if he was honest, he didn't want to. He had a lot of things he still wanted to do with his life and he was just going to have to get past his fears. It still wouldn't be easy, but it would be a lot better facing the changes with his friends and family by his side than on his own.

Dr. Elephun seems to understand Tadashi's silence as taking his time to think things over because he waits a moment before speaking again. "You know, Tadashi, being the first person that we know of to have undergone this type of procedure, you're sort of pioneer—a symbol, if you will, for anyone who's going to come after. I think there's a lot of good you could do. Now, I know that you're not big on the idea of going back to the lab, and I certainly don't want to have your cooped up in there either, but I do have a proposition for you."

Tadashi raises his eyebrows, his curiosity piqued. "What sort of proposition?"

"Well, for one thing, you know as much as I do that new technology always has some bugs in it, including probably yours. I also know from what I've read of your work that you have an interest in using robotics in the medical field to help people, correct?"

"Yeah," Tadashi agrees. "I do."

Dr. Elephun smiles. "Well, here's what I'm proposing. My program still has a good deal of funding left to it—more probably to come if we can prove that our research is actually working. How would you fell about coming on as a paid intern? We'd of course do some observations of you, but you could actually have a hand in helping actually designing the technology which is going to be the future of the medical field!"

Tadashi feels his hear race as he considers this offer. Him, getting to actually pave the way to whole new era in both robotic engineering and healthcare? It almost sounded too good to be true! It was everything he'd dreamed of and more. "I'm not out of college yet," he tells Dr. Elephun, just to make sure that everything was out in the open.

"Not a problem." The doctor waves his concerns aside. "It said in the journal that you go to the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, right?"

"Well, I did before the fire," Tadashi replies.

"I have a lot of connections there," Dr. Elephun says with a smile. "I think we could get a lot of your work in the lab to count towards your degree plan, and any courses that you still have to take I'm sure we could find a scholarship for."

"And you wouldn't mind if I kept on with my own research project, Baymax?" Tadashi queries.

"The robotic nurse bot that you wrote about?" Dr. Elephun practically beams. "Not at all! In fact, I think the idea of robotic healthcare facilitators would go hand in hand with what we're doing. Quite a lot of applications that robot of yours could have."

"In that case, yes! I accept your offer more gratefully than I can express," Tadashi tells him with a grin of own.

"Splendid!" Dr. Elephun claps his hands together, and then stands up as if to go. "I'll make all of the arrangements. I'll send all of the necessary paperwork around to your house, all right?"

"Absolutely." Tadashi rises and shakes the doctor's hand enthusiastically. "Thank you so much again for—well, for everything."

"My dear boy, it has been a pleasure," Dr. Elephun says with a smile.

As she and the apartment and down the steps, a sudden thought comes to Tadashi. "Wait!" he calls over the banister. "How are you supposed to find me if you don't know where I live?"

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be able to find you," Dr. Elephun chuckles, looking up at the boy. "Just don't take off the hospital bracelet!" Then he disappeared around the corner and was gone.

Tadashi stares down at the strip of plastic that had been around his wrist since entering the hospital and then twists it inside out.

"A tracking chip," he realizes as he sees the tiny green square of metal, and then shakes his head with amusement. He'll let the doctor have his eccentricities for the moment—although he promises himself that, as soon as Doctor Elephun knows his actual address, he's getting rid of this thing.

He heads back inside, his head spinning with everything that had happened so far that afternoon. It's a lot to take in, but in the end he's left feeling a whole lot better about things than he had when he'd woken up that morning. Sinking onto the couch cushions, he wishes that Honey was around to hear the good news. He promises himself that as soon as she gets home, he's going to tell her everything, and then maybe the tow of them can go see the others together—

"Aiyee!"

A quiet scream interrupts Tadshi's train of thought. He instantly recognizes the voice as Honey Lemon's, and his eyes fly open as he tries to figure out where it's coming from. His initial reaction is to check outside in case she's met some sort of trouble in the parking lot. But then he realizes that the sound is coming from the TV, which he'd forgotten to turn off. It takes a moment for him to process through what he's seeing—a blond girl dressed in some sort of orange and pink armored dress is clinging for dear life to a flagpole at the top of the burning building he'd seen on the news earlier. For a moment he wondered if he'd only imagined it-if maybe this stranger's voice only sounded similar to his girlfriend's. But then the camera pans in closer, and he gasps as he suddenly makes the connection—she _is_ Honey Lemon!


	7. Chapter 7

Hey everyone! So, so, sooooo sorry for the late update! But here it is—the last chapter of "Waking Up Again"! Thanks super much to everyone who's stuck with the story thus far, you're the best readers a girl could hope for! Well, after making you wait this long, I'll let you guys get to reading and see you at the bottom!

Note: I'd like to dedicate this chapter to TheNightFury, who's the most amazing little brother in the whole entire world! Love you otouto! ^^

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Tadashi instantly reaches to turn the volume up on the television, hoping to get some sort of answers as to what's going on and why Honey Lemon is hanging on for dear life at the top of a burning building dressed in a superhero costume.

"The vigilante group known as Big Hero 6 is at the sight of the old Takiyama Noodle Headquarters today," the reporter says, narrating the scene. "We've been giving you live coverage for the entirety of this event of this event, and while the rescue operation seems to have been a resounding success, now things seem to have taken a turn for the worse. One of the members of the group appears to be stranded five stories up, and while normally the team would never hesitate to save one of their own, the other are all currently inside of the building looking for anyone that they might have missed. Fire fighters are trying to get a ladder to her, but unfortunately theirs isn't quite tall enough to reach her on top of that, the rescue workers are worried that too much movement might further compromise the structure of the building, endangering everyone inside. Please stay tuned so we can give you more live details as this story progresses."

Tadashi runs his fingers through his hair, panic stirring inside of his chest. Honey Lemon—no, it had to be a mistake! She couldn't be in danger. They'd only just found each other again! He watches in despair as the seconds tick past, knowing that each one was one second closer to Honey Lemon's demise. But what could he do? He feels so ridiculously useless, just standing there doing nothing, his rapid heartbeat reflected by the tiny red dot in his vision—

Wait a minute. The dot—it would lead him to Honey! It's a longshot, but it's better than doing nothing. Not caring that he's barefoot and still dressed in hospital scrubs that he'd slept in, he races out the door and down the stairs. From there, he lets the dot guide him, trusting it to find Honey for him. As long as it's still shining, he knows that there's still hope.

Five blocks and a couple hundred odd or annoyed looks from the people he'd either passed or pushed through, he arrives at the scene of the fire. Now he's actually beginning to feel glad for his mechanical parts since before he never could have made that sprint in under three minute time like he'd just done. Still, this isn't the time to start geeking out about it. He's got to stick to his mission and find Honey.

It doesn't take long to locate her. Between his internal sensor and her cries for help to find her relatively quickly. Fortunately, the majority of the people gathered around to watch are being kept back by the police around the other side of the building, and the firemen have their attention on trying to formulate a new rescue plan, so Tadashi, as just a single person, is able to slip by them with relative ease. As soon he's close enough to the building, he comes to a stop and calls out, "Honey!"

Honey Lemon's eyes, which had been squeezed tightly shut , snap open at the sound of his voice. "T-Tadashi?" she cries in disbelief, looking down at him.

"Yeah, it's me," he answers, smiling to try to keep her form feeling too nervous. The last thing he wants her to do is lose her grip before he can go through with his plan. "Look, you're going to be okay. I know how to get you down from there."

"You-you do?" Honey asks, looking surprised.

"Yes," Tadashi replies, holding his arms out to her. "I want you to let go, and I'll catch you."

"What?" Honey shrieks. "Are you _crazy?!_"

"No," Tadashi responds, shaking his head. "I'm being completely serious. I promise, I won't let you fall."

"I-I'm scared," Honey finally whimpers.

"I know you are." Tadashi gives her the most encouraging smile he can muster. "But I know you can do it. Just look at me—I was too terrified to even think of leaving your apartment this morning, but now I'm out there with all of these people around. I know you're even braver than I am, so what do you say? Can you trust me?"

Honey Lemon sucks in a deep breath of air, and then nods.

"That's my girl," Tadashi grins proudly. "On three, okay? 1…2…3!"

On the count of three, Honey Lemon lets go. For a moment she goes into free fall and Tadashi to get into position. He's terrified that he misjudged the location for a second, but then he feels her land safely in his arms and he lets out a long sigh of relief. It's not a moment too soon—the moment he catches her, the pole that Honey had been hanging from snaps in too and falls to the ground with a sickening thud.

"Oh my gosh!" Honey cries as soon as she regains her ability to speak. "Tadashi, you just saved my life!"

"Well, hey, I wasn't about to actually let you fall," Tadashi answers, trying to hid how worried he'd been by pressing her head up against his shoulder. "And besides, I made you think that I was dead for a whole six months—I think I still owe you for that."

"Let's just call it even, okay?" Honey Lemon responds with a slight smile.

"Deal," Tadashi agrees. Then he brushes some of her long blond hair out of her face and adds, "You know, there's something I've been meaning to do for a very long time and, considering we've both been through near-death experiences lately, I think that now's the time to do it."

"Okay." Honey looks up at him with her big green eyes. "What is it?"

"This." Tadashi leans down to kiss her. It's everything he'd hoped for—sweet, innocent, beautiful—and when it's over, he's left in a raspberry scented daze. Honey, for her part, looks completely caught off guard by it, and he wonders momentarily if he's done the wrong thing, but then she reaches up to pull him back down for another one, and he knows that he had been right after all.

"Honey Lemon!" a slightly annoyed voice suddenly breaking into the moment. "Hello? We're supposed to be rescuing people, not sucking face with a random strang—"

"GoGo?" Tadashi's eyes light up as he and Honey Lemon come apart.

The short raven haired girl with an independent streak as wide as her thick purple highlights goes pale as she sees his face. Her mouth falls open and her gum drops to the ground as she stares at him in disbelief. "T-Tadashi?" she finally stammers, pulling off her yellow helmet as if afraid that the protective lens on the front of it was making him see things.

Before Tadashi can even answer, another figure, dressed in light green and blue costume that's vaguely reminiscent of a genie Tadashi remembers seeing in a movie when he was a kid appears around the corner. "Okay guys, looks like everyone's out of there, so we should probably clear out before any of the reporters start hassling us again about trying to give out our secret identities and—holy shoot!" The male stumbles back a few paces as he catches sight of the newcomer.

"Wasabi!" Tadashi grins and sets Honey Lemon down.

"I-is this for real?" Wasabi looks between Honey Lemon and Tadashi, obviously unsure of what to think.

"It is!" Honey Lemon beams, squeezing Tadashi's hand with excitement. "It's really him!"

"Are you sure?" Wasabi doesn't look fully convinced. "I mean, we had that alternate universe version of Fred show up last month, and you know how freaky that was."

"It wasn't freaky! It was freakin' awesome?" All heads turn as Tadashi feels slightly panicked as he takes stock of the blue, flame covered monster heading their way. But a moment late, the creature removes its head to reveal a shaggy haired boy underneath, and Tadashi relaxes as he recognizes his friend, Fred. The other youth doesn't even seem to notice him as he continues on, "I mean, it was like me, but not me! It's the me I'd be if I went all diabolical and evil, which I'm not planning on doing, but still! It makes me wonder how many other 'me's' are out there? I mean, there could be an infinite numbers of Freds, living an infinite number of lives in an infinite number of plains of realities, that are all different, and yet connected! That's pretty mind-blowing, don't you think, Tadashi?"

Tadashi tries to hold back a creeping smile, waiting to see how long it would take for the realization to set in. It took a full minute of Fred just casually resting his arm on Tadashi's shoulder before the youth's eyes suddenly went wide and he cries, "Oh my gosh, Tadashi! Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Tadashi snorts with laughter. Fred never did have much in the department of tact. A moment later he finds himself getting squashed in an almost suffocating hug, but he doesn't care. It's awesome just being with his friends. And, on top of that, since Fred's in what appears to be a heavily padded suit, he doesn't have to worry about how hard he's hugging him back.

"Okay, that's got to be our Tadashi," GoGo says with a slight smile.

"Yeah," Wasabi agrees. "No one else would be willing to put up with being hugged by Fredzilla."

"Group hug!" Honey Lemon announces enthusiastically, and Tadashi finds himself being squished even more so, but he just smiles and accepts the love that's being sent his way.

"Guys!" Tadashi suddenly stiffens as he hears a voice—a voice that he knows better that any other and that, six months ago, he was convinced he'd never hear again.

"What are you doing?" the voice continues, sounding part confuse, part annoyed. "We've got to get moving before we get hounded by the press again. C'mon, let's head out!"

The vice-like group hug around Tadashi loosens, but he find the others standing in front of him, almost like a protective wall—whether for his protection or for Hiro's, he wasn't sure.

"Hiro," Honey Lemon finally begins after exchanging a good number of glances with the others. "There's something you need to know."

"Can't it wait?" Hiro protests, and Tadashi can almost imagine him crossing his arms over his chest in the adorably huffy way that he always does when he's impatient.

"I don't think you're going to want to wait on this one, little man," Wasabi answers, and before Hiro can protest any further, he and the others move so that the brothers can finally see each other.

What strikes Tadashi first is how grown up his little brother looks. Maybe he's not that much taller (although he thinks the teen must have gone through a recent growth spurt) and he's still got the messy mop of black hair that he refuses to cut expect when absolutely necessary under the helmet of her purple and black armored suit that he's wearing. But there's an unmistakable aging that's taken place in his face—a sort of quiet wisdom that hadn't been there before. Tadashi wonders if it has anything to do with his supposed passing, or if his little brother's just gained a lot of maturity in the last six months. Either way, though, Tadashi feels a slight stab in his heart as he realizes just how much he had missed.

Hiro, for his part, seems to be going through a whole range of emotions. First his face goes as white as a sheet, as if he can't quite believe what he was seeing. Then it flashes through a series of anger and grief, as if he's reliving every painful moment that he'd experienced since he thought his brother had died in the fire. For a moment Tadashi seriously thinks that he was going to hit him, and even though it hadn't really been his fault that he'd been stuck in the hospital for all that time, he can understand why his brother is so emotionally charged up by this probably very shocking reunion. But then Hiro's face seems to cave in on itself and he cries, "T-Tadashi?"

"It's me, Hiro. It's really, truly me." Tadashi lets out a relieved sigh and he kneels down to open his arms to his little brother and a moment later the two of them are embracing like they're never going to let go of each other. Tadashi is now fully grateful for the robotic limbs—without their help, he wouldn't' be able to hold his little brother, or wipe away the tears that both of them are crying, or know without a doubt that he's strong enough to protect Hiro from anything that might come their way. It's probably a good five minute before either of them is able to speak.

"W-what happened to you?" Hiro finally asks, a few tears still making their way down his cheeks. "I-I saw you going into the exhibition dull, and then there was that explosion and—"

Tadashi shakes his head. "I don't know how I survived. Someone was looking out for me, I guess. I've been in the hospital for the past six months stuck in a coma while the doctors were patching me up."

"A-a coma? Are you okay? Is it anything super serious?"

"No, I'm completely better now," Tadashi responds, hoping that that isn't really a lie. He is better—just not exactly the same.

"Are you s-sure?" Hiro's eyes search Tadashi's. "I mean—there isn't a chance anything could go wrong? That I could lose you again?"

"No!" Tadashi holds his brother closer. "Absolutely not. There's no way that I'm ever leaving you again, so don't even think that way. Everything's going to be fine now, okay?"

"Okay." Hiro nods, looking relieved and wiping the remains of the tears away.

"If it would make you feel better, I can scan Tadashi and check his vital signs."

Tadashi's head snaps up at the sound of a familiar robotic voice. "B-Baymax?" he stammers in disbelief and then grins as he sees the result of his many, many, many hours of work in the lab. Then he raises a questioning eyebrow as he realizes that the soft, huggable design of white vinyl that he'd originally constructed Baymax with had been covered over with a red carbon fiber armor and that the robot had his arms wrapped around the other four young adults, covering their mouths as if to keep them from talking, and all four are looking mildly miffed about it.

"Baymax, what are you doing?" Hiro laughs, apparently more used to this behavior than Tadashi is.

"Crying is a natural human response to pain," Baymax responds cheerfully. "I wished to make sure that you could process through your emotions in peace. Have you satisfactorily processed through you emotions?"

"Yeah, it's fine, let them go," Hiro answers, waving for Baymax to release the other, who all breathe huge sighs of relief.

"I have also currently distracted the reporters by sending a cute cat video to all of their phones," Baymax announces proudly. "We have approximately 3.6 minutes before all of them finish watching it to make our ecape."

"Let's get going then," GoGo says, putting her helmet back on and looking like she's preparing to take off down the street. The others seem to be doing likewise, and Tadashi stands to join them. But then he knows Hiro whispering something to Baymax and a moment later, there's a familiar "whirring" noise and then the words "scan complete". The words Tadashi had so rejoiced over his creation finally learning to say months ago suddenly sound like a death sentence. He and Honey both turn back to watch in slight horror to find that Hiro's already removed the robot's chest plate and Tadashi's entire health profile is being displayed. Baymax seems to be having a hard time figuring out what to make of the data he's received, but after a moment he finally says, "I detect large amounts of inorganic material in Tadashi's system."

"What the heck?" Hiro leans in for a closer inspection, apparently noting all of the areas in the diagram which show the parts of Tadashi which had been replaced in the lab. "What is all that?"

"None of it appears to be adverse to Tadashi's health," Baymax continues, his voice as cheerful as ever. "However, it is not in my programming to diagnose what exactly they are. I can run an analysis of the chemical compounds that they are made of—"

"Baymax, that won't be necessary," Tadashi says with a slight sigh, cutting the robot off short. "I can tell you exactly what they are." If there's a time to come clean, now is it. He feels more confident than he had earlier about it after his talk with Doctor Elephun, but it's still somewhat hard to admit, and he feels grateful when Honey Lemon slips her hand into his for support. "They're—robotic prosthetics," he finally admits after a moment's internal struggle. He doesn't look up to see the expression on the other's faces as he quickly hurries on with his explanation. "A lot of me was lost in the fire. There was a doctor who was doing research in the hospital—he took my case, and he pretty much rebuilt everything that was gone. It was pretty much the only way that I could go on living a semi-normal life. I mean, it doesn't really change anything about me, it's just—what had to be done." He finally pries his eyes off of the ground to see what the others' reactions are. They are all staring at him in various stages of shock. It's Hiro who finally breaks the silence.

"Are-are you serious?" he asks, looking at Tadashi with a look that's impossible to read.

"Y-yeah," Tadashi agrees, hanging his head, wondering if Hiro will still be able to accept him now that he knows the truth.

"That. Is. Awesome!" Hiro punches the air with excitement.

"What?" Tadashi looks back up at him with amazement. "You're-you're not freaked out at all by this?"

"Not unless you mean that it's freaking awesome!" Within moment he descends on his older brother like an over-eager child with a new toy. "Oh my gosh, this tech is sick!" he cries as he examines Tadashi's arm like it's some priceless artifact.

"Um, wrong arm bro," Tadashi laughs, more from relief than anything. Hiro quickly switches to the correct arm, and the others gather around for a closer inspection.

"So—you're all okay with this?" Tadashi asks as everyone looks him over with what almost seems like awe.

"Are you kidding?" Wasabi looks at him incredulously. "This is amazing! I've never seen anything like it before—it's completely life like. Why wouldn't we be okay with it?"

"I just thought—well, that maybe you'd think it was weird or something," Tadashi replies with an embarrassed shrug.

"Tadashi, I think you forget that we're all nerds here and basically obsessed with technology," GoGo returns, cracking a slight smile. "Technological adages are to us are what tricked out rims are to a biker."

"It's like you're a stinkin' cyborg!" Fred cries enthusiastically.

"Not helping," GoGo sighs, elbowing him in what must have been the one weak point in the suit because he instantly keels over slightly.

"Just look around," Honey Lemon says, laying a gentle hand on Tadashi's shoulder. "All of us use technology to do what we do. I have a purse that mixes chemical compounds for me. Fred has a suit that creates flames. Wasabi has plasma blades, GoGo uses electro-mag suspension to get around faster, and Hiro's suit works with Baymax's to go flying."

"Wait, Baymax can fly now?" Tadashi stares at the robot in disbelief.

"Flying makes me a better healthcare companion," Baymax answers cheerfully.

"I see." Tadashi looks over at Hiro, who smiles somewhat sheepishly up at him, and then shakes his head. "You guys are right. I'm sorry that I didn't trust you enough to tell you on my own. I should have known that I could count on you to accept me, robotic parts and all."

"Hey, it's what we do," Wasabi says with a shrug and a grin.

"We're a team, and teams look out for each other," GoGo adds, popping a new piece of gum into her mouth and cracking it loudly.

"That is, if you want to be a part of the team." Hiro says this last part, looking hopefully up at his older brother.

"Well, I think maybe you'd better explain what exactly it is that you guys are doing," Tadashi answers with a smile. "But yeah, I get the feeling that I definitely want to be a part of it."

Hiro grins like he's just won a million dollars and opens his mouth to answer when Baymax suddenly pipes up again. "I hate to interrupt, but the cat video that I sent the reporters will be over in approximately thirty seconds. Now may be the appropriate time to leave before they come looking for you."

"Oh man, we've got to go!" Hiro cries. "Those paparazzi are stinkin' relentless!" He runs over to Baymax and climbs up onto the robot's back, and the others similarly prepare to beat a hasty retreat. "Meet at Fred's like usual, okay?"

"Okay!" comes the resounding response.

Tadashi can't help but smile slightly at that. His little brother—a leader! He couldn't be more proud.

"Hey, do you need a lift?" Hiro calls to Tadashi as he and Baymax prepare to take off and others go their various ways.

"Nah," Tadashi responds, suddenly feeling just a tiny bit mischievous. "But I'll race you!"

"Wha-?" Hiro doesn't even get a chance to ask what he means because Tadashi takes off down the street at full speed. "Hey, no fair!" the younger Hamada shouts. A moment later, he and Baymax are airborne and in hot pursuit. It quickly becomes a contest of wills, with Hiro and Baymax pulling justa tiny bit ahead, then Tadashi, then Hiro and Baymax, and then Tadashi again. It doesn't take long for the flying nursebot and his rider to start outpacing the elder boy, but he doesn't mind. He's got his family, his friends, and his life back. He's going to be interning in a position which is pretty much his life long dream and where he'll be able to help lots of people like himself. And, from the sounds of things, he's soon going to be joining a small group of superheroes and be able to help even more people. Maybe his life is going to be a lot different than it was before the fire. But no, more than ever, he's so grateful that he'd been able to wake up again.

~The End~

0o0

Well, as Porky Pig once said, "T-that's a-all folks! Thanks again to all of my wonderful reviewers and everyone who's been reading this story! I hope that it at least gave y'all a little something to smile about, if nothing else. Now, before you ask, this is probably as far as this story's going to go—but that doesn't mean that my work with BH 6 is done. Fairly soon (hopefully!) my otouto and I will be posting a co-written fanfic called "Deviant Week", following Hiro and Tadashi as they go through pretty much anything and everything imaginable (Tadashi getting genderbent, a spirit who's convinced that Hiro is his son taking over Tadashi, and Hiro getting turned into a toddler, to name a few!) over the course of one very hectic week! It will be insane, but it will most certainly warm your heart with all of the adorable brotherly fluff! ^^ Hope to see y'all when we start posting, and, until then, God bless and thanks for reading "Waking Up Again"!


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